Newsroom

March is Fraud Prevention Month

Even though our economy has stayed strong, Americans are feeling the weight of affordability.  Expenses like childcare have seen an increase, leaving many families devoting an entire paycheck to childcare services. Everyone wants lower costs.

As your state financial officer, I belong to the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) which includes 27 members from 23 different states. We work to preserve economic freedom and are responsible for public dollars remaining secure, liquid, and productive in the state. It is our job to help stand up to fraud, waste, and abuse.

Just this year alone, SFOF safeguarded $28 billion of taxpayer dollars, stopped $5.7 in waste, fraud, and abuse, and oversaw $22.3 billion in investment earnings for hardworking Americans.

Since I assumed office at the Mississippi Treasury, we have generated over $1 billion in interest income from state investments. This never previously achieved result came from investing state general and special funds that otherwise would have sat idle. This interest income helps support a multitude of action items like state projects, infrastructure, schools, and more.

Ultimately, this is a result of taxpayer dollars managed responsibly. This just shows that strong financial results can be attained without raising taxes or widening government spending.

On the contrary, at the end of last year, there was the Minnesota fraud scandal which encompassed 14 programs and stole hundreds of millions of dollars from state and federal programs. While this situation is still being heavily investigated, it shows the damage that can be done when taxpayer dollars are improperly used. As you can see, there is a need to eliminate fraud on both the state and federal levels. There is no excuse to not properly allocate hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

To help prevent fraud at the State level, we implemented a citizen declaration on the Unclaimed Money page in order to file a claim. Mississippi taxpayers pay for my team and I to serve them – the citizens of Mississippi. While everyone is entitled to their unclaimed money, claims made by American citizens take precedent over any claim by a foreign agent and everyone who makes a claim has to show ID to move forward with their claim.

I’m proud to represent Mississippi as a SFOF member working to eliminate wasteful spending and fraud abuse within the government. Hardworking Americans deserve to have their dollars safeguarded and spent wisely.